Why are you self publishing?

Or in other words, does your book suck?

There is a whole lot of negativity surrounding self publishing and especially epublishing. I have to say that up until a very short time ago, I was one of those people that thought if you resorted to self publishing, your book was simply not good enough to be published traditionally. And a few very vocal authors made it difficult to think otherwise. They were loud and obnoxious and refused to admit that there might be flaws in their writing. You know the type. They've become legends online.

But the debates that I've seen on a lot of blogs lately, such as on Nathan Brandon's and BookEnds', have convinced me to be more open minded. Sure books published by a large company will be seen by more people simply because it would be available in more places. However, not everyone can be published by these companies. Even very good books can be passed up in favour of ones that are more likely to bring in higher revenue. Does that mean that the story has to be torn up, or worse, left in a box collecting dust for the rest of time? I think there have been enough successful self publishers at this point to prove that no, that isn't the end for your book. Or at least it doesn't have to be.

I love MAGIC HIGH. I am confident that it deserves more than a dusty box. Every day while I do the final touches to the story before publishing I lose a little of that confidence, but usually I regain it again later. It's a scary business after all, but I know that I'm making the right choice for this book at this time. At least I think I do. I hope. Maybe.

Why the stutter in your name?

The decision to add my middle initial to my name was one that I didn't come to easily. I honestly would rather be known as simply Christina Gaudet (pronounced Goody where I'm from) but a few years ago when I was fresh out of college and ready to take on the world as a graphic designer, I tried to grab the url christinagaudet.com and I realised something awful. There was another Christina Gaudet out there. How could this be? How dare she have my name! But alas, there she was. A singer. Go ahead. Google my name, you'll see what I mean.

As a writer, I always had the option of taking a pen name, but then I would never experience that warm fuzzy feeling of seeing my name on a book cover. For those of you who don't write, you'd be surprised to discover that the only thing that drives a writer is to see their name in print. It's not about the relentless need to tell their story, oh no, it's just about the name. So in order to differentiate myself, I chose to use my middle initial. Grace. It's a good name. Almost, graceful if you will. And yet, it always saddens me when my friends play the initial game to discover theirs spell out fun words like PAM or WMW or ABC. Alright, so these aren't exactly words, but you understand what I'm getting at. CGG feels a little like a mistake, as though I forgot that little middle thingy on the first letter (GGG) or accidentally typed in the G twice.

Then again, it would be pretty hard to forget my middle initial if you can remember the rest of my name. You probably wont spend too much time looking at the url saying "I know there's something that comes between Christina and Gaudet, if only I could remember what that letter was." And so Christina G Gaudet is what I'll go by while I delve into the self publishing world.

Follow me if you dare.